Motus Mentis

Over at American Greatness yesterday, Mackubin Owens has written a short piece entitled ‘Pandemic Is Shining a Light on the American Character‘. Indeed it has.

There have of course been many Americans who have shown great courage in manning their stations, and keeping necessary infrastructure working, despite personal risk. Had it not been for them, we’d rapidly have descended into real darkness.

Mr. Owens, however, points out three aspects of our current national character that this crisis has brought to view. They are of course generally human characteristics, but to take a purely essentialist view leaves out the ebb and flow of civic virtue in the life-cycles of civilizations. Much of what we have seen is due more specifically to the qualities of this society, at this late stage of its life.

We read:

The first is the predisposition of too many political leaders to tyrannical behavior. Theirs is real tyranny: the imposition of a one-size-fits-all, arbitrary, sweeping, draconian approach to the virus, which has caused massive — and mounting —collateral damage. It is the imposition of regulations that violate the Constitution itself by many governors and mayors.

Those who have revealed their inner tyrant include New York mayor Bill DeBlasio, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The essence of the will to tyranny was best summarized by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who said in response to unauthorized gatherings in her city, that to “save lives … we will shut you down, we will cite you, and if we need to, we will arrest you and we will take you to jail.”

Of course, we are assured that those who issue these edicts do so for our own good. But as C.S. Lewis wrote in “God in the Dock: Essays on Theology”: “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth.”

Quite so, but there’s more to despotism than imposing harsh rules upon others: there is also the exemption of the despot himself from those rules. So we have Bill DeBlasio cracking down on “non-essential travel” while taking a motorcade from Gracie Mansion to Prospect Park to have a stroll, and Lori Lightfoot closing Chicago’s hair salons, then going off to get her hair done because she “has to be on TV”.

Second is moral narcissism:

…the tendency of many Americans to denigrate those who disagree with the draconian measures that have been deemed necessary to combat the virus. Moral narcissism goes beyond old-fashioned “virtue signaling.” The latter is a way to demonstrate one’s own moral superiority; the former requires one to shame those who don’t agree.

This was already in full view before the virus; it is nothing more, in this era of cryptoreligious zeal, than the shaming of heretics. It is no different from what we have already seen regarding “climate deniers”, “xenophobes”, and “deplorables” generally. We’ve seen it before, too: in the America of the 1850s.

Third is snitching:

The third negative feature — and perhaps the most troubling — is that this moral narcissism pits Americans against each other in a very dangerous way by inviting them to inform on their fellow citizens if they are not following the “rules.” Indeed, some states and cities have set up “tip” lines to allow informants to anonymously rat out their neighbors. Do we really want to set out on the path to becoming a surveillance state? Watch “The Lives of Others” if you really believe that this is a good idea.

I was expecting to see another item on the list: our ovine submission to overweening authority, our willingness to yield ancient and essential liberties at the first whiff of fear. I saw a meme recently featuring Junius Stearns’s painting of Washington addressing the Constitutional Convention, with text that said “JUST TO BE CLEAR, NONE OF THIS MATTERS IF THERE’S A VIRUS”. Yes, of course outbreaks of disease require some reasonable accommodation — but I think we were made, once upon a time, of sterner stuff.